


The Gender Neutral Cabin

by aintweproudriff



Series: Camp Mile Away [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Coming Out, Friendship, Gen, Homophobia, Serious Injuries, Transphobia, all these kids love each other a lot, buttons is brave i love them, violence but not quite enough to tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 00:50:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13823001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: "Specs had gotten themself a cabin that made them comfortable, and paved the way for Buttons to come out in the process." -Get LostSo how exactly did that all go over for Buttons?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In spirit, this is dedicated to @the_athenian_pamphleteer, who really should get an actual ao3 account so i can gift stuff to them, because they're awesome.   
> Also because we all need more Buttons in our lives.

“So I guess what I’m trying to say,” Specs told the cabin of eighth graders one late night, almost a week into camp. The counselors were at a meeting that had run late, which was likely the only reason Specs felt comfortable giving this announcement, and the only reason that all the campers were still awake at almost one o’clock in the morning. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m nonbinary. I’m not a boy, but I’m not a girl either.”

“I think I’ve heard of people like that,” Race nodded. “A kid at school said they’re like that. They asked if we would call them ‘them’ instead of her. 

“Do you want that too?” Spot asked from his place at Race’s side. 

A little murmur passed around the room before Specs answered. “Yeah. I think I’d like to try that.”

Jack grinned and leaned his head over the top of the bunk. “Seriously? That’s awesome!”

Specs’s jaw went slack; their jaw unhinged from the way it had been nervously clamped shut. “Really?”

“Hell yeah!” Jack pushed himself to a sitting position. “I mean, we’ve all already established that most of us aren’t straight in here. We did cover that, right? Like, two nights ago? Most all of us like boys.”

The whole room nodded, except for two boys shoved into one bunk in the corner of the room. One of them, the one on the bottom, stage-whispered a single word that every other person in the area had to work to ignore. They all glared at the darkly lit bunk, but didn’t say a thing. 

“So yeah. We all like boys, and some of us like girls too,” Jack shrugged. “So why would we be angry about something like this? It’s just cool to have, uh, more diversity.”

“Yeah,” Crutchie said, leaning out from his spot next to Jack. “I’m just happy that you felt comfortable enough to tell us.”

The whole room nodded again before fading back into comfortable chatter. Jack, Davey, and Crutchie sat on top of Jack’s bunk, huddled together in a circle of giggles. Race, Spot, Elmer, and Albert were in the corner, next to the bathroom door. They also were chattering away happily, pushing and shoving each other. Romeo had jumped up to hug Specs after they told the cabin their big news, and now the two of them, plus Jojo and Henry, were sat in the middle of the cabin floor, discussing their respective coming out stories. Since Blink and Mush had chosen to go to Europe on a school trip that summer instead of camp, Buttons was the only one left without someone to talk to. Not that Blink and Mush really would have talked to them if they had been at camp, of course. They had announced to the friend group that they were dating only a day before they had left for vacation. Of course, that triggered all of the coming outs that had happened at camp this year. And then Specs’s revelation to the group was… something totally else entirely.

Buttons had always known it. Not a girl, not a boy. Somewhere in between, maybe? Or off the map completely? It didn’t matter, much. There was a word for it: nonbinary. They. 

“They,” whispered Buttons. It was new on their tongue, but familiar. “They.”

Oscar and Morris must have heard Buttons say it. Their bunk was incredibly close to the bunk bed of the brothers, who shot an angry look towards them. They put their head down and looked around the room innocently. 

Since everyone had talked about liking boys a few days ago, something had been different in the cabin. It was like a window had been opened, and all the stuffy, smelly, sickening air made by twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year old boys had been blown away and replaced with what Buttons could only presume smelled like the girls’ cabin. It was like the comfortable silence at halfway through free time, when everyone is eating chocolate and reading or playing on their phone and no one needs to talk to feel appreciated. Nothing had changed, and somehow, so much had changed. 

Buttons put earbuds in, clicked on some music, and rolled over. Sleep. Sleep would help. 

-

And, the next day, some things were certainly better. They sure felt like their head was buzzing less, like they had some direction. People were being nice to Specs today, after they had told the entire cabin last night and then the whole camp at breakfast. They certainly didn’t half-ass anything. Buttons wished they could be like Specs. 

“I am like Specs, though,” they muttered to themself when they were at the back of the pack on that day’s hike. “That’s kind of the issue.” 

Buttons was just like Specs. Buttons wasn’t a girl, and wasn’t a boy. Specs wasn’t a girl, and wasn’t a boy. Specs was different. Buttons was different. Different than anyone either of them had met before; two of a kind. 

Buttons was nothing like Specs, because Specs was brave and willing to get up in front of over a dozen people and bare their entire soul to them. Specs could tell everyone that they were a different person, that they were one of a kind, and hardly even care about the consequences. Buttons, on the other hand, preferred to wait and do - nothing. 

Buttons wanted nothing more than to be like Specs. To be brave, to be outgoing and charming enough to establish what was obviously a “flirtationship” with the most romantic boy in the entire world. To not give a damn about what other people thought of them. 

Buttons did not want to be like Specs at all. Of course, they couldn’t help what they were and how they felt. But if they came out now, it would seem overdone, even selfish. Like Buttons had seen the kind of positive attention that Specs was getting and wanted in on that. 

The hike wore on, the sun beating down heavily on Butons’s head. When they pulled out their water bottle to try and ease the pressure and heat, they found it empty. Fuck. This whole time, it had been leaking onto their backpack, dampening the material and wasting water. 

Buttons fell further and further behind the group. Sometimes, a counselor would turn his or her head around to see if they were coming, but the whole group must have gotten caught up in singing campfire songs and telling jokes that eventually, they forgot they were there. Which was fine. They needed the time to think things through. And the woods were nice. Calm and quiet: the perfect place to think. 

Think they did; about how much they loved camp, even if sometimes they felt a little out of place. Their place was on the field, playing games, and in the cabin, laughing about jokes. Everyone had a place here. Jack’s was leading his team to victory. Katherine’s was organizing feminist rallies. Davey’s was inside the cabin, a book on his lap, reading passages out loud when he thought they were particularly beautiful or poignant. 

The peaceful hum of the forest snapped as a noise sounded from Buttons’s right. Figures emerged from the trees, speckled by sunlight that seemed highly ironic to hit the faces of people with such dark, angry eyes. 

“Oscar, Morris,” Buttons started to say. “How far ahead is everyone else? Are we close to the waterfall-”

Oscar slammed his hand into Buttons’s chest, pushing them backwards. Before they knew why, a jarring kick to their side, then a hit to their head made the blue sky darken.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the love for this fic, and for get lost. im still not over that

Buttons awoke to a breeze blowing over their face and a hand shaking their side. 

“Buttons?” A voice asked. “He’s not waking up, but he’s breathing. Let’s get him back to camp, alright?”

They felt their legs being lifted up, and hands underneath their back. Then they were being lifted into the air, strung out between two people. 

“Oh my god, I’m not strong enough for this,” the voice spoke again. The voice belonged to the person holding their back. They readjusted their hands, and then sighed. “Let’s go.”

Buttons slowly opened their eyes. The sunlight hurt their head, but seeing the movement on their face, the person carrying them gasped. 

“Buttons?”

They made a humming noise. 

“Oh my god you’re okay. That’s good,” said Henry, who was shifting his vision from Buttons’s face to the ground where he was walking. “Can you - ugh - can you walk? I don’t wanna make this harder for you than it needs to be, but this is actually really hard.”

Buttons nodded slightly. Henry put their arm around his shoulders, and set him down gently. The person who had been supporting their legs - Jojo - put them down and then rushed to their other side to put their other arm around his shoulders. Each time Buttons took a step, one of them would strengthen their hold on them, helping them move at least a little. Together, the three of them made their way down the long path back to camp. 

-

When they reached the camp, the two boys on each side of Buttons yelled for help, until a few people - Jack, Race, and Katherine - came running from the cabins. 

“Can you get the staff and nurse to come over here?” Henry tried hard to smile at Jack as he spoke, but the mixture of exhaustion and concern for his friends obscured his normally easy smile. 

“Yeah,” Jack said, his mouth hanging open. He took off in the direction of the main hall, where the nurse’s office was held.   
Race and Katherine took over for Henry and Jojo, supporting their weight until they could get Buttons to a chair. Henry and Jojo guided the three to the chair, each of them keeping their hands as close to Buttons as possible. They leaned back in the chair, trying to take a breath without hurting themself. Only then did they notice how pretty the sky was that day. There was not a single cloud in the sky, and the richest shade of blue imaginable. 

The nurse came rushing out with a first aid kit, a few counselors on her tail. Buttons’s senior cabin counselor was there, and the blood had drained from his face. Buttons could only imagine that when Jack had bust into the counselor meeting, saying that Buttons had been hurt, he had stood up, trying to look calm and collected but feeling like a hole had opened up in the earth. The girls’ junior cabin counselor, Hannah, followed him, her face just as worried. She had never had a full conversation with Buttons, but they were on her team, and it was obvious from the way she interacted with the campers that she loved each and every one of them, and would do anything she could to help. 

“Okay, Buttons,” the nurse said, her voice perfectly calm from years of practice. “You’re going to be alright. We’re going to get you cleaned up and patch up these open wounds, and then we’ll figure out what else is happening here. Sound good?”

They nodded. The promise of healing helped to calm them down enough that the pain it might have caused to nod or say something went away. 

“Alright,” she said as she cleaned the little bit of blood that was still on Buttons’s arm. “Hannah, you know how to check to see if he has a concussion, right?”

Hannah nodded. 

“Okay, dear. Go ahead and do that, then.”

Hannah took a deep breath. “Buttons, can you talk to me about where you are and where you were when you got hurt?”

“Yeah. Um,” they clicked their tongue. “I’m at Camp Mile-Away, and when I got hurt I was in the forest, on a hike with the rest of the camp.”

“Okay, good,” Hannah nodded, reaching forward and taking Buttons’s hand. “And can you name all the people around you for me?”

“Jack, Jojo, Henry,” Buttons said, pointing to each person in turn. “Katherine, Race, Hannah, Nurse Sandra, and Sam.”

“Good!” Hannah smiled at them. “Do you feel nauseous at all?”

Buttons shook their head no. 

“Do you have a headache?”

No again. 

“Okay. We shouldn’t need to worry about a concussion then, I think. But we’ll keep an eye on you, and make sure nothing changes,” Hannah nodded surely and stood up. 

“Good job, Hannah,” said the nurse, her hand on Button’s ribs, pushing in a little. “Buttons, does that hurt?”

They nodded, grimacing a little. 

“Hm. Can you take a deep breath in for me?”

Buttons did as she asked, and felt a sharp pain which made them gasp. 

“Yeah, okay,” she nodded. “Is it okay if I lift up your shirt to check what I think might have happened?”

They wanted to say no, that there were a lot of people around, including a girl and four boys who all liked boys and that there was too much attention on them already. But they nodded, swallowing hard. 

She lifted up their shirt and made a humming noise when she looked at the side of their torso. “Yeah, alright.”

Buttons didn’t look down, but instead kept their gaze up high. 

“Your ribs aren’t broken, thankfully,” she told them quietly. “But I’m pretty positive you bruised them. So you’ll need to take it easy for the rest of camp. That means no camp games, and no running around. When you sleep, try to sit up as much as possible; it’ll help it heal a little faster. Come to me at breakfast and dinner for painkillers,” she said, and then looked to his counselor pointedly, as if to ask if he was hearing her directions. He nodded, and she continued. “I’ll make sure we give you some that won’t make a concussion worse, just to be safe. And during morning games outside, come to my office to get a cold compress. Got that?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good,” she said, and squeezed his hand slightly. “You should rest as much as possible today, but keep moving a little bit, okay? Don’t sit down or stay in one place for more than, like, thirty minutes.”

“Thank you, nurse Sandra,” said the boys’ cabin counselor. “I’ll take him back to the cabin and let him get some rest, then he’ll give us the report of how this all happened, okay?”

Nurse Sandra nodded. “That’s a smart idea.”

-

As they sat on the porch of the little cabin, Buttons watched their friends playing soccer in the field. It was kind of fun to observe the shouts rising from the game, but they knew it would get old fast. There would only be so many times they watched other people having fun before they felt like they were missing out. Still, they would rather be here, doing nothing, than be at home. 

“Buttons?” called a voice from inside the cabin. Sam. 

They stood up and walked inside. They had been sitting for much too long anyways. 

“Yeah?”

Sam turned to them and tried to give a confident smile. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” 

Buttons returned the smile, feeling as fake-sure as Sam looked. “No. Um, it happened. That’s all I want to say about it.”

“Really?” Sam’s face scrunched up. “You know that if someone did this to you, then he or she would get sent home from camp, right?”

“Yes.”

“And if someone hurt you, they would deserve to get sent home. That’s why that rule is in place. There’s no room for people who hurt others here.”

“I know,” Buttons nodded sincerely. Their head still didn’t hurt, which they assumed was a good sign that they didn’t have a concussion. “And if someone had hurt me, I wouldn’t want to get them sent home. If I got sent home, it would ruin my summer.” They took a breath. “But it doesn’t matter, because I fell. It’s just kind of embarrassing that it happened, that’s why I didn’t want to say it.”

Sam nodded. “Okay, Buttons. If you’re trying to protect someone, then that’s very kind and brave of you. But you don’t have to do that. You can tell someone, and he or she will be sent home, so that no one else gets hurt.” He sighed. “But if you don’t give a name, then we have no proof that anyone actually hurt you. So we’ll take you at your word. If you decide to change your mind, though, go ahead and say something. It won’t be a big deal.”

“Okay, Sam. Thanks.”

“Sure thing, kid.”

-

They walked back out onto the porch to sit down again. Waiting for them there were their rescuers, Henry and Jojo. Sweaty and panting from the game, they watched as Buttons sat down and then took places on either side of them. 

“Was it the Delanceys?” Henry asked, taking Buttons’s left hand. “It must have been them, right?”

“I fell,” Buttons said, repeating their alibi. But a second passed and they nodded. 

Jojo closed his eyes and reached to hold their hand, whispering, “why wouldn’t you say anything?”

“I dunno. I wouldn’t want to ruin their summer.”

“Buttons. Dude, they bruised your ribs. They almost gave you a concussion!” Henry laughed bitterly. “You could have had to go home from camp, you could have had to go to the hospital. I think you’ve got a right to-”

“I know. I know. I just didn’t want to.”

“Screw not wanting to,” Jojo all but growled. “Ruin their summers. Whatever it takes.”

“Fine. Yeah, alright,” Buttons muttered, angry that they hadn’t thought that way about it earlier. They stood up again, pushing themself up. “Sam?” they called into the cabin. 

Sam stepped up to the door, his hands shoved in his pockets. 

“It was Oscar and Morris. They hurt me.”

“Okay, Buttons. I’ll tell Mr. Pulitzer,” Sam said, and there was the tiniest smile on his face. “Thank you for letting me know.”

Buttons smiled and went to sit back down. 

“Good job, man,” Jojo smiled at them.

“About that,” Buttons said. Despite the pain in their ribs and the events of the day, there was a certain invincible feeling in the air. “I’m not a man.”

“Oh,” Henry said, and looked like he was going to say something else. 

“I’m like Specs, basically.”

“Oh,” Henry said again. “So, like, they and them?”

Buttons only nodded. 

“Okay. That’s cool, I guess.”

“You think so?” they said, tilting their head to the side. 

“Yeah. Yeah, it is!” Jojo said, as if that was the defining opinion on the matter. “That’s pretty cool. And really cool of you to say, on today of all days. I mean, getting beat up, talking about it, and then telling us something like this? That’s a cool thing. I’m proud of you for that.”

Buttons smiled at the compliment. “Thanks. It’s not that big of a deal, really.”

“No, it is,” Henry said, but he shot Buttons one last proud smile and dropped the subject. “Wanna come get closer to the field and watch them all play?”

“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” Buttons said with a grin and a sort of half-prayer of thanks that their injuries hadn’t been worse, and that even if they had been, there would have been friends to support them when they needed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, there we go. some background.   
> for the record, the delanceys were sent home from camp that year, but were allowed back because a) their parents complained and b) Pulitzer wanted the money

**Author's Note:**

> ...sorry. The second chapter will hopefully go up sometime soon, although I can't say when exactly.


End file.
